A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON AGING IN THE COMMUNITY AND CULTURE AMONG CHINESE OLDER ADULTS

Abstract Chinese older adults face many barriers to healthy aging in community, such as increased financial burden, threatened place security, limited accessibility to medical services, language and transportation difficulties, daily housework and repairs challenges, etc. This systematic review aimed to examine and report the results current scholars have published in journal articles in the last decade (2010-present) on the influence of culture on Chinese older adults aging in community. Combination terms of “aging in community or aging in place,” “Chinese,” and “culture or cultural or ethnicity or identity or values” were used when searching in the four databases: CINAHL Complete; ERIC; MEDLINE; and PsycInfo. Researcher examined abstracts of all journal articles retrieved using the above criteria and further determined their relevance for inclusion. A total of 38 journal articles were included. Findings suggest that aging in community reflects a changing policy tendency from institution-based to community-centered care which better responds to the needs of the growing Chinese senior population. Family care remains older adults’ preferences. However, individual, community, and larger contextual factors can be influenced, such as the number of adult children in the household, education level, residential area, accessibility to healthcare facilities, perceived cultural values of filial piety, state-owned enterprise reformation, and the one-child policy in China. Policymakers are encouraged to promote older adults’ personalized care plans; comprehensive health insurance coverage; constructive social/community environments (e.g. community parks or community open spaces for age-friendly activities); home care support, or smart home technologies for regular health monitoring.


ENGAGEMENT OR ENJOYMENT? ATTITUDES OF OLDER ADULTS IN GROUP LUNCH VERSUS. LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMS
Purpose: This study examines aging attitudes among older adults who participated in the neighborhood lunch (NLP) and lifelong learning (LLP) programs.
Methods: Older adults from an NLP and an LLP in the same county in Florida participated.An aging attitudes measurement originally developed by German researchers was used.
Results: A total of 193 older adults participated, 43% from NLP.The mean age was 73.2 (SD=7.78)years.Data showed that LLP older adults endorsed higher on "would like to have responsibilities," "have a task," "do unpaid volunteer work," and "help others" (p<.001).NLP participants, on the other hand, endorsed higher on "no longer have to contribute to society," "want to enjoy life," and "finally want to rest and relax" (all p<.001).Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) using principal component extraction methods and varimax rotation with Kaiser normalization showed a clear balanced 2-factor pattern, with total variance explained 60% (30% each).These two factors were consistent with the theory representing engagement versus enjoyment aging attitudes.Reliabilities of the twofactor scales were satisfactory, with Cronbach's alpha of .764(CITC ranged: .457~ .660)for the engagement scale (4-item) and.634 (CITC ranged: .379~.499) for the enjoyment scale (3-item).
Discussion: Current findings showed that LLP participants endorsed higher engagement, while NLP participants endorsed higher enjoyment towards aging.This tested aging attitudes scale consists of 7 items with two clear theoryconsistent factors among community-dwelling older adults.Results can help researchers quickly assess aging attitudes of diverse groups of older adults for tailored program and service development.

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON AGING IN THE COMMUNITY AND CULTURE AMONG CHINESE OLDER ADULTS
Hao-Min Chen 1 , and Su-I Hou 2 , 1.Texas A&M Killeen,Texas,United States,2. School of Global Health Management & Informatics,University of Central Florida,Orlando,FL,USA,Oviedo,Florida,United States Chinese older adults face many barriers to healthy aging in community, such as increased financial burden, threatened place security, limited accessibility to medical services, language and transportation difficulties, daily housework and repairs challenges, etc.This systematic review aimed to examine and report the results current scholars have published in journal articles in the last decade (2010-present) on the influence of culture on Chinese older adults aging in community.Combination terms of "aging in community or aging in place," "Chinese," and "culture or cultural or ethnicity or identity or values" were used when searching in the four databases: CINAHL Complete; ERIC; MEDLINE; and PsycInfo.Researcher examined abstracts of all journal articles retrieved using the above criteria and further determined their relevance for inclusion.A total of 38 journal articles were included.Findings suggest that aging in community reflects a changing policy tendency from institution-based to community-centered care which better responds to the needs of the growing Chinese senior population.Family care remains older adults' preferences.However, individual, community, and larger contextual factors can be influenced, such as the number of adult children in the household, education level, residential area, accessibility to healthcare facilities, perceived cultural values of filial piety, state-owned enterprise reformation, and the one-child policy in China.

THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF PLACE ATTACHMENT ON ATTITUDE TOWARD AGING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
Jia-Jen Chen, and Li-Fan Liu, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Tainan, Taiwan (Republic of China) Psychological well-being has become a social challenge for vulnerable older adults and age-friendly cities/ communities has been a key aging policy focusing on environmental factors to enhance well-being in Taiwan.However, how older adults perceive their living environments and whether it is important when advocating older adults' positive attitudes toward aging leading to psychological well-being remains unknown.One of the place attachment dimensions is psychological attachment which has attracted attention in planning for aging in place and age-friendly communities (Aliakbarzadeh et al., 2021;2022).This study aims to investigate whether psychological attachment mediated the relationship between attitudes toward aging and psychological well-being among community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan.A faced-tofaced interview of 306 individuals aged 50 and over living in the community were interviewed.The Cronbach's alpha of all scales was over 0.70 which showed good reliability.The associations and mediation effects were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) and the model fitted the data adequately.After controlling for sex and age, the SEM findings demonstrated that the lower level of negative attitudes toward aging were significantly and positively associated with well-being (direct effect = 0.16, p <0.05).Furthermore, the lower level of negative attitudes toward aging was positively related with place attachment and consequently predicted better psychological well-being (indirect effect = 0.048, p = 0.034; total effect = 0.209, p= 0.003).We suggest that place attachment should be monitored in the policy of age-friendly communities while improving older adults' positive attitudes toward aging leading to a better sense of well-being.

A DIVERSE LIFE IS A BETTER LIFE? THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ACTIVITY DIVERSITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING IN HONG KONG
Zhixuan Lin, and Helene Fung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong The debate between the devotedness and evenness of activity participation has long existed.On the one hand, the theory of selective optimization with compensation (Baltes & Baltes, 1990) argues that successful aging depends on concentrating one's participation on fewer domains of activities.On the other hand, the social integration perspective (Rosow, 1967) posits that diversity indicates extensive knowledge and a sense of purpose, which contributes to well-being.A previous study found a positive relationship between activity diversity and older adults' psychological well-being in a U.S. sample (Lee et al., 2018).However, it might not be the case for people living in extremely hot weather as diverse activities might increase the risk of exposure to the heat.The current study examines their relationship in the hot summer months in Hong Kong, a tropical Asian city.Community-dwelling participants aged 60 years or above (N = 344, Mage = 67.15,SDage = 5.26) completed surveys 3 times each day over 10 days, reporting their activities, positive and negative affect, meaning and engagement of each activity, and loneliness.The regional heat-risk index was acquired from Hua et al. (2021).Results showed that activity diversity negatively correlated with positive affect, meaningfulness and engagement of daily activities, and positively correlated with loneliness.Heat risk did not moderate the relationship, but it correlated with less positive and more negative affect.Our findings suggest that Hong Kong older adults benefit from focused rather than broad participation in activities.

LEVERAGING NEIGHBORHOOD EXPOSURES AS MODIFIERS OF INDIVIDUAL RISK FACTORS FOR COGNITIVE DECLINE AND DEMENTIAS
Chair: Michelle Carlson Co-Chair: Andrea Rosso Discussant: Gina Lovasi There are numerous ways in which neighborhood environmental factors have been shown to contribute to adverse health.More remains to be done to link long-term neighborhood exposures, such as social and physical activities, to modifiable individual risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia.Individual interventions are usually small in scale and conducted in those with higher socioeconomic status (SES).Additionally, increases in healthy behaviors, such as walking, have been difficult to promote and sustain.Each of these risk factors is known to be influenced by environmental features.This symposium will explore the roles of neighborhood-level social (nSES, affluence, cohesion, discrimination) and physical (air pollution) factors as drivers of cognitive aging and dementia across multiple longitudinal studies of community-based aging.Studies span urban and rural communities, including the Health ABC Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, and the Think Phresh study.These studies are important to evaluating the role of Policymakers are encouraged to promote older adults' personalized care plans; comprehensive health insurance coverage; constructive social/community environments (e.g.community parks or community open spaces for agefriendly activities); home care support, or smart home technologies for regular health monitoring.